Atlanta Blue (Summertime in Georgia)- Saturday- June 25, 2016

We got a little bit later start than Julie had planned, but that's hardly surprising because we were all pretty exhausted.  We had breakfast at the hotel and then had almost two hours yet to drive to get to Atlanta.  Traffic, as expected, was pretty heavy for a weekend morning. 

We found this odd little parking lot by the Aquarium, and Julie had to back in uphill. We paid a little more for it too, but we were happy to have a space.

We bought the Atlanta City Pass and made plans to see the sights.  Julie had been to the Georgia Aquarium once before and wanted to bring the girls there first. There must be big money in these mega-aquariums, because every time we've been to one recently, they've been packed! Julie said it wasn't like this when she was here before, but it was certainly crowded today.

The aquarium was nice, but most of what it did we've seen done well in other places. The central mall-like part of the aquarium serves as the hub, and there are themed areas that radiate off of it. We started to the right and worked our way around. Emma liked the jellyfish that we began with, and they were amazing little things to see. We rode a moving sidewalk on a tunnel through a tank. We’ve seen glass tunnels like this in other places, but they are fun, and Scott liked watching the massive whale sharks swimming by. We ate lunch at the aquarium cafe then. After lunch, we went to the cold water gallery. One of the beluga whales was getting a little... amorous, shall we say? Anna thought it was hysterical. We got in the massive line/swarm/sea of people headed into the dolphin show. We didn't expect the whole crowd to fit, but we did. The dolphin show was fun because not many places do them anymore. They had a lot of lights and strobes mixed in, and projected additional scenes on sail shaped screens behind the show, but the show itself was very much like other shows had been before- a little humor, but mostly educational. Four dolphins jumping in coordinated patterns were sweet to watch and Scott was sad that video was not allowed. Julie liked the albino alligators in the river gallery, but we all agreed that the crowds were wearing us out, and we were ready to leave.

We started to go to the Coke exhibit, but the line was wrapped around the building, and it was really, really hot out, so we decided to call it a day, as far as sightseeing went. We went back to the car, but we think we got our muffler damaged on that stupid hill we were parked on. It’s making a loud roaring noise when we are in reverse or idling.

We made our way back to Buford, Georgia, about 40 miles from Atlanta, where Julie’s cousin Corey lived. It was a little after 3:00, and Julie went on her phone to find a hotel to check into. We went to a place for barbecue for dinner, then stopped at Walmart for a few necessities. The girls swam a short time in the hotel pool, then we went to Corey’s house for about 3 hours. We talked with him and his girlfriend Bridgette, and also met their friendly old dog Dixie. We visited for a while, then made plans for breakfast tomorrow.